Cooper-Standard buoyed by EV orders as losses narrow

Northville, Michigan - Demand for its materials-based technologies in electric vehicle (EV) applications is playing an increasing role in Cooper-Standard's business recovery programme.

For full year 2022, the company's net new business awards totaled around $246 million, some $198 million of which were on EV platforms. 

The development builds on gains seen in 2021, when the company's net new business awards reached $186 million, including $106 million on EV platforms. 

“EV trends continue to create opportunity,” stated Cooper Standard, linking the trend to its engineering and manufacturing capabilities and innovation programmes.

New orders helped Cooper Standard to narrow losses by around 33% in 2022, alogside improvements in ‘volume & mix’ and a rationalisation of its cost structure.

The Michigan-based components supplier saw net loss decrease to $215 million in 2022, from $322 million reported the year before.

Annual sales were up 8% at $2.53 billion for 2022, primarily due to improved volume and mix including "enhanced" commercial agreements.

The gains in sales, Cooper Standard said 16 Feb, were partially offset by “unfavourable” foreign exchange.

The US company linked the improvement in net loss to favourable volume and mix, improved manufacturing efficiency, lower SGA&E expense and lower income tax expense.

The positive factors were partially offset by continuing increases in raw material costs, higher wages, general inflation, higher interest expense, and unfavorable foreign exchange.

“We continued to make progress in the fourth quarter and improved our results throughout 2022,” commented Jeffrey Edwards, chairman and CEO of Cooper Standard.

The company’s performance, he added, in terms of product quality, new programme launches and timely delivery had “never been better, despite the challenging macro environment in industry.”

Edwards added that Cooper Standard's progress in winning “significant business awards” on new platforms, particularly EVs, pointed to a positive outlook for 2023 and beyond.